4 pages., Via online journal., Raising the productivity of smallholders
is a necessary condition for increasing incomes and
improving livelihoods among the rural poor in most
developing countries. This increased productivity is
essential to both household food security and to
agriculture-based growth and poverty reduction in the larger
economy. Smallholder productivity is limited by a variety of
constraints including poor soils, unpredictable rainfall,
and imperfect markets, as well as lack of access to
productive resources, financial services, or infrastructure.
Information and communication technologies (ICT) are also
vitally important to commercial and large-scale agriculture,
and to agriculture-related services and infrastructure such
as weather monitoring and irrigation. This note focuses on
the sometimes less-obvious importance of ICT in improving
the information, communication, transaction, and networking
elements of smallholder agriculture in developing countries.
Labonne, Julien (author) and Chase, Robert S. (author)
Format:
Research paper
Publication Date:
2009
Published:
Philippines: Sustainable Development Network, Social Development Department, The World Bank
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 127 Document Number: D11237
Notes:
Via online. Policy Research Working Paper No. 4996. 24 pages., Authors explored the impact of access to information on poor farmers' consumption. Results indicated that farmers purchasing a mobile phone experienced larger growth rate per capita consumption over the 2002-2006 period. Estimates ranged from 11 percent to 17 percent.
